The party of ‘knuckle-dragging Neanderthals’

Former Real World cast member and current Wisconsin Republican Rep. Sean Duffy thinks the GOP needs to appeal to, well, the real world.

“From my perspective, and I come from a very 50-50 district in central and northern Wisconsin, you have people on our side of the aisle that have a really abrasive tone. We can come across as knuckle-dragging Neanderthals on occasion,” Duffy said Tuesdayon Morning Joe.

“We have to actually take our message to where people are at,” he added. “We have moms that can’t pay the utility bill, dads who can’t pay the mortgage. How does our conservative ideology and philosophy actually help lift them out of the place that they are today and move them up the economic ladder?”

The Wisconsin congressman—who appeared on Morning Joe with his wife Rachel Campos-Duffy to promote a conservative, Hispanic outreach group, LIBRE initiative, and Campos-Duffy’s book on parenting —said the GOP must work to be empathetic. He admitted that the party doesn’t “do a good job of presenting that message, and we have to change how we’re doing it.”

It’s not the first time the Grand Old Party has been compared to prehistoric peoples.

In September, Vice President Joe Biden blamed “this sort of Neanderthal crowd” in the House for opposing the Violence Against Women Act, insulting Neanderthals and Republicans all at once, according to the Los Angeles Times.